Joe Connolly, who captained Galway to a memorable All-Ireland hurling victory in 1980; former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, and Tramp Press co-founder Lisa Coen, are among this year's NUI Galway Alumni Award Winners.
Joe Connolly will be presented with the Alumni Award for Contribution to Sport. In a distinguished hurling career, Mr Connolly captained Galway to victory in the All-Ireland Hurling final in 1980 and was a member of the Connacht team that won the Railway Cup, also in 1980. He was in the Castlegar team that won the Connacht Senior Club Hurling Championship in 1972, 1973, 1979, and 1984.
In a long political career, Pat Rabbitte has been a member of The Workers Party, Democratic Left, and finally Labour, which he led from 2002 to 2007. He was a TD from 1989 to 2016 and served as minister of state for commerce, science, and technology from 1994 to 1997 and minister for communications, energy, and natural resources from 2011 to 2014. He will be presented with the Alumni Award for Law, Public Policy, and Government.
The Award for Arts, Literature and Celtic Studies, will go to Lisa Coen, who, with Sarah Davis-Goff [both pictured below], founded the independent Irish publishers Tramp Press. Tramp has published Mike McCormack's critically acclaimed Solar Bones, which won the 2016 Goldsmith Prize and the 2016 BGE Irish Book Of The Year, and was longlisted for Booker. Tramp also published Sara Baume's Spill Simmer Falter Wither and A Line Made By Walking.
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The Alumni Award for Business and Commerce will go to Aedhmar Hynes, CEO, Text100; the Alumni Award for Engineering, Science, and Technology will be presented to Bernard McGuinness, vice president, Flavor Supply, The Coca-Cola Company; the Alumni Award for Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences will go to Prof Declan Sugrue, cardiologist, Mater Hospital; while the Gradam Alumni don Ghaeilgewill go to the poet Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh.
The winners of the 2018 Alumni Awards to be presented at the 18th annual Alumni Awards Gala Banquet on Saturday March 3 in the Bailey Allen Hall, Áras na Mac Léinn. The event will be presented by RTÉ/TG4 presenter and producer, Gráinne McElwain. For tickets contact the Alumni Office (091 - 492721, [email protected] ).
